Ben Vereen retrospective: Broadway songs will be the focus of Kean performance

Ben Vereen will perform songs from the many Broadway shows heâs starred in, Saturday at Kean University in UnionAbby Brack/Getty Images

In roles ranging from the tormented, soulful Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” to the lively leading player who spurs on all the action in “Pippin,” Ben Vereen has long captivated audiences. He has a fiery way of telling a story through his powerhouse vocals and equal dance skill.

Vereen’s varied career has also included the roles of Chicken George in “Roots” and Billy Flynn in “Chicago.” The virtually peerless triple-threat leading man, now 66, is beginning to reflect on all that he has accomplished since starting out in a touring production of Bob Fosse’s “Sweet Charity” when he was just 19.

“I loved it all,” says Vereen. “It was a glorious journey.”

Vereen will perform a selection of his Broadway hits at Kean University’s Enlow Hall on Saturday. The performance will also include tributes to Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, two of his primary influences. The actor appeared alongside Davis in the film version of “Sweet Charity” and also understudied him in a London production of “Golden Boy.”

The show can be seen as a preview to “Last of the Showmen,” a film about Vereen’s life currently in post-production with a cast of his friends and co-stars including Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli, Usher and David Copperfield.

“It’s our memoir,” Vereen says. “We all went through the Kennedy assassination, we all went through Martin Luther King Jr., the Vietnam War. … There’s a lot of history there. This is our story through all of that and through song and dance.”

In the Kean show, Vereen will also move through his particular life story, his successes and his setbacks. In 1992, he was hit by a car, causing serious injuries. He returned to Broadway within a year to perform in “Jelly’s Last Jam” and has since taken part in productions of “I’m Not Rappaport” and “Fosse” and made numerous TV appearances.

“I don’t dance like I used to, but I still move,” Vereen says.

This week, Vereen performed in a benefit for people with disabilities who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy, organized by the Kessler Institute in Saddle Brook, where he was rehabilitated after his accident. He will also perform at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton on Dec. 15.

He makes a point of reaching out to fans and the theater community wherever he goes, and is developing a training program for actors that would include business and health guidance as well as the usual song-and-dance coaching. Although he has not yet found a home for the four-week intensive program he has in mind, he hopes to find a university on the East Coast.

“I want to empower people,” he says. “That’s what I kind of do with my shows. … whether it’s Kessler, Kean, New York City, London, France or China.”

Vereen continues to keep a close watch on the theater world, including catching up on revivals of shows in which he created roles — such as “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which he saw last season.

“It was a nice attempt,” he says. “Talented, talented actors in that production.”

Vereen is looking forward to the next “Pippin,” a show for which he won a Tony Award. A version currently playing in Los Angeles, directed by Diane Paulus, is expected to land on Broadway next season.

In the meantime, at Kean, audiences can hear him sing a selection from another Broadway show he appeared in: “Wicked.” His Enlow Hall performance was almost canceled because of Hurricane Sandy, and he wants to use one of the most famous songs from the Stephen Schwartz musical for inspiration.

“We will be talking about how we have ‘defied gravity’ through the storm,” Vereen says. “Nothing’s gonna hold us down as a people, nothing.”